Arrests Made In Murders Of BMF Soldier ‘Slick’ McFarlin & Ex-NFL’er Robert Eddins, Out-Of-Staters Came To MI For Hits

Three drug world figures have been indicted for the murders of Black Mafia Family lieutenant Ricky (Slick) McFarlin and one-time pro football player Robert Eddins in Detroit two years ago. Michael Griffin, Dennis Epps and Mariano Garcia were charged in the double homicide last week. Griffin, 34, lives in Alabama, Epps, 30, is from Mississippi and Garcia, 47, resides in Arizona.

According to sources in law enforcement, the three co-defendants were in the narcotics business with the victims and the murders were part of a drug rip-off. The 32-year old McFarlin and Eddins, 28, were found slain execution style in the basement of a westside Detroit home on December 21, 2016. Authorities say the hits weren’t connected to BMF.

McFarlin, a mid-level lieutenant in BMF’s Midwest regime during the early 2000s, had just gotten out of prison. He was released from federal lockup in October 2016 after a decade behind bars on drug and racketeering charges spawning from the DEA’s massive 2005 Operation Motor City Mafia indictment which dealt a crippling blow to America’s biggest narcotics conglomerate at the time. More than 150 members of BMF got convicted in the case.

Eddins grew up in Detroit and played in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills during the 2011 campaign. The house he and McFarlin were killed in belonged to Eddins’ grandmother. Griffin tried to throw police off his scent in the immediate aftermath of the murders by posting comments on his social media accounts expressing surprise and mourning.

Founded by the legendary Flenory brothers, BMF started on the southwest side of Detroit in the early 1990s and quickly began spreading across the United States. Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, 50, was the face of the group and controlled the organization’s affairs down south. Big Meech headquartered out of Atlanta and professed to being an aspiring hip-hop mogul. His much lower-profile baby brother, Terry (Southwest T) Flenory, 47, looked after BMF activity on the west coast and in the siblings’ hometown of Detroit. Other BMF hubs around the country included New York, Texas, Memphis and St. Louis. When the Operation Motor City Mafia bust hit in the mid-2000s, the BMF crew was clearing hundreds of millions of dollars per year in a transcontinental cocaine trafficking conspiracy of epic proportions.

The Flenorys both pled guilty in the case on the eve of trial and are serving respective 30-year prison terms. Rapper and actor Curtis (50) Jackson is currently developing a television series around the story of the rise and fall of BMF for Starz. Reports of a BMF resurgence in Detroit and Atlanta have surfaced in recent years.